Month: May 2017

As you’ve likely realized in the past decade, Google has been expanding far beyond being a mere search engine. From their very own browser all the way to having their hand in a number of educational tools and now, even the Internet of Things. IoT Core is Google’s response to the growing interest across the globe in the Internet of Things.

What is IoT Core?

IoT Core enables its customers to analyze and manage their connected IoT devices. With access to Google’s powerful Cloud, it can access devices with Intel, ARM, and Marvel processors. It will also be fully compatible with Android Things. In other words, it’s a place you can store the controls for multiple devices. This way, you can have everything in one place and control it all with just a few clicks.

When’s it coming?

As of right now, there’s no release date available. That’s totally normal, though, as it was only just announced last week. By all accounts, the service is still under development. It seems that they’ve got much of the pieces for the Core, but haven’t yet put them all together.

You can access a free trial right now or even sign up for their private beta by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.

More Whales in the Sea.

Don’t think they’re the only big company out there working on the IoT, though. Amazon and Microsoft have both been aggressively promoting their own IoT services for the past few years. In fact, Google’s only now throwing its hat into the ring, so it’s a step behind.

With the IoT market expected to reach numbers as high as £1.12 trillion by 2020, they’d be crazy not to.

Want to read more?

To see more about the official announcement of the IoT Core, click here. It’s got all the info they’ve announced to help you get excited for when they release.

If you’re looking to join the private beta, you’ll want to click here.

With the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming more and more prevalent in our modern age, you have to wonder whether there’s been more risk as well. After all, having things watching or listening all day every day is certainly a lot different than just when you’re accessing a device.

Cybersecurity is a big deal to a lot of people, both consumer and company, but the fact is that not a lot of companies are really looking into the security of the devices they’re using which are tied into the IoT. From TV’s to toasters, thermostats to baby monitors — these are just some of the IoT-enabled devices that have already been hacked. Even with those risks, it seems companies are only bringing more and more IoT-enabled devices into their homes.

Just how many companies is this affecting?

As crazy as it may seem, a survey conducted just last year consisting of around 1,000 enterprise IT buyers, 71% are already gathering IoT data and 90% plan on increasing their IoT spending for this year. With those numbers, we can clearly see most companies are definitely investing in IoT technology.

Data tracked by devices include movement tracking, purchases, equipment and supply tagging, and much more. With so much different data being collected from various devices on a minute-by-minute basis, companies would be crazy not to invest.

Even with their multitude of uses for companies of all different areas of expertise, the biggest issue still in everybody’s way is security. As complex as these new machines and devices are, they simply don’t have the appropriate level of encryption or a strong enough password.

What’s being done to counter this?

Not a lot. Companies are wholly unprepared for a cyber attack from an IoT device. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute shows that 55% of IT department respondents say that there is a lack of quality assurance and testing procedures for IoT apps.

With competition so high as companies race to ship out new, exciting products, errors are bound to happen. The fact is that they’re just moving too fast, without enough internal policies, which leads to errors in code.

In fact, nearly 50% of companies believe that they were victims of a cyberattack or security breach thanks to an IoT app. Interestingly, also roughly 50% said they would consider increasing their budget or put new regulations in place if a severe hacking incident took place..

With over 20 billion devices expected to be installed by the end of this decade, many of which will be used by government or businesses, I’d say it’s already time to start becoming more prepares. The hackers aren’t going to wait for you to get around to it, so why should you wait for them?